Attleborough-based Banham Poultry has faced strong opposition over its plans at Clay Hall Farm, Great Witchingham.

Villagers claim the plant being built is bigger than it has permission for and have voiced concerns that it could process carcasses of animals with notifiable diseases such as avian flu.

But bosses at the Banham Compost, part of Banham Poultry, say the worst it intends to process is low-risk diseased poultry, relating to common conditions such as enteritis.

The company says it is building a single-unit rendering plant that was approved in 2003 and has submitted a planning application to Norfolk County Council for a twin-unit plant, processing the same material and of the same size.

It says the twin-unit plant became necessary after Defra introduced new guidelines last year banning different grades of material from being processed in the same building.

But objectors have requested the government "call-in" the planning application and this week the director of planning at the county council, Mike Jackson, confirmed the company is carrying out building work that it does not have permission for on the site.

Bob Waterson, the project manager at Banham, insisted the only deviation from the approved plan on site was that a second intake pit had been dug, which will be filled if requested by the county council.

He said if it took too long to get the two units approved the company would instead complete the single building and only process one type of waste material.

Mr Waterson said the twin-unit plant was identical to the approved single-building plant apart from the fact that it would have two intakes and outputs, which would mean a small section of the roof was two panels higher.

He added it would be a vast improvement over the Mid Norfolk Proteins rendering plant that ran on site until 2003.

Source: EDP 24